1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the migration of storage data within storage area networks, and particularly to the automated planning and execution of a storage data operation within a storage area network.
2. Description of Background
Conventionally, storage area networks (SANs) are implemented to separate data storage from application servers, wherein storage serves as a first-class entity that provides services to applications. Currently, the organization of most SANs is accomplished using manual organizational means. Manually organized performance tasks are usually performed in ad-hoc manner, thus leading to the possibility of error-prone and time-consuming organizational decision making tasks. For example, in customer sites, migrating storage volumes from one storage controller to another storage controller can take months; with several missteps possibly occurring along the way. Unfortunately, within busy data centers, the on-demand organization of the storage area network is needed all the time.